Camry HybridDiscussion area for the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving Americas favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
I am considering replacing the front and rear brakes on my car, versus pay a shop to do it.
I work on all of my vintage American cars, though am hesitant to work on this new thing.
Are replacing the Hybrid brakes quite simple and straightforward?
Will my batch of Standard Tools going to work?
Thanks!
The Following User Says Thank You to 1962300 For This Useful Post:
I am considering replacing the front and rear brakes on my car, versus pay a shop to do it.
I work on all of my vintage American cars, though am hesitant to work on this new thing.
Are replacing the Hybrid brakes quite simple and straightforward?
Will my batch of Standard Tools going to work?
Thanks!
How long have you owned this car? Are you actually experiencing some form of TRUE brake problems?
One of the great advantages of the HSD cars is that their traditional friction brakes are so incredibly underused that worn out pads and rotors (truly worn out) are exceedingly rare. I've seen a photo of a Prius with around 200k miles and the original pads had about 75% material remaining.
Remember, there are ONLY two times that the pads are are pushed into the rotors: when the car's speed drops to around seven (7) mph, or if, based upon a heavy, fast pedal input, the computer senses an EMERGENCY braking condition. ALL other "braking" (should I just say "slowing") is done by the motor-generators (inside the transmission) acting in generator mode and slowing the car using the resistance caused by changing your speed (well, velocity really) into electrical energy (which is then, of course, stored in the battery for future propulsion -- the essence of the HSD car).
Ergo, the brake system on your Toyota hybrid sees FAR LESS use and wear than the brake system on any conventional car. The front pads on my 09 Camry hybrid, which has over 75k miles, still look near-new thick.
Anyway, as for working on the brakes themselves, with the wheels off and the brake hardware in front of you, there is essentially zero difference between the hardware there than there is on any other modern ABS equipped car. NONE, and I do mean NONE of the "hybrid magic" your car performs happens in the friction braking system (all that happens inside the transaxle, and the traction battery, and of course the control unit you see on the driver's side under the hood -- look for the thick orange cables). When the friction brakes do operate, the operate just as those in any other ABS car, and you can work on them accordingly.
If you really do need to replace friction brake parts, check out FrozenRotors.com. Their products are amazing -- though in all candor, given how UN-stressed hybrid friction brakes are, you'd probably never need their extra performance. I plan to replace my discs, if I ever need to, with FR products. Personally, I just can't stand even the first sign of warpage of rotors, and once you start "turning" them, well, that becomes a repetitive process 'till there just too thin...
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2009 Camry Hybrid, Black.
2007 Avalon XLS, Cassis Pearl (that Burgundy color).
2004 Prius Package 9, Black.
1962300, it's a straight job. Toyota being Toyota, it's 1 socket, socket wrench, large C-clamp, and a can of caliper grease job. 10 minutes per side.
you replacing only brake pads, right? For some reason, my rear rotors glaze up very fast. I de-glazed them last year, they are due to same procedure again. Must be metal.
From my experience, and we owned/own 3 Toyotas, their rotors are not favoring ceramic pads. Rubbing noise.
Have at it, and don't forget to generously grease all caliper guides and pads contact points. When done, make sure caliper freely slides back-forth on guides. It's a MUST check.
Thanks so much for the replies....especially that fully descriptive one that enlightened me on how the cars system actually works! The car is a 2007 and has just under 75k miles on it. The rears are starting to squeak, so I figured I would do them and the fronts at the same time. The parking brake pedal has also lost some of its "pedal", which I know can be solved by replacing the rear brakes with more meat.
Thanks to all!!
this is exactly why I de-glazed rear rotors. squeal was gone right away and then slowly returned, along with glaze on rotors. front rotors do not glaze as bad, so TCH either brakes differently in rear, or metal is different. I'd safely assume it has braking force proportionate valve though.
Thanks so much for the replies....especially that fully descriptive one that enlightened me on how the cars system actually works! The car is a 2007 and has just under 75k miles on it. The rears are starting to squeak, so I figured I would do them and the fronts at the same time. The parking brake pedal has also lost some of its "pedal", which I know can be solved by replacing the rear brakes with more meat.
Thanks to all!!
My pleasure to help. I would only suggest that you look to see if there's some reason why the rear pads are wearing at this early time. There are Vancouver TAXI CAB Priuses (Prii?) approaching 300k miles that are still wearing their original shoes, front and back. I understand that there's a critical difference between straight-up wear and glazing, but that said, I'd recommend that you check to make sure that there's not something wrong that's causing premature wear. From a simple wear perspective, the rears on a Camry Hybrid (or Prius, or other Toyota/Lex other than the Highlander) should last for about a thousand years (well -- maybe not THAT long...). If there is something else going on, putting on new pads and/or rotors will help in the short term, but will end up being only a "band-aid" that only temporarily conceals the real issue.
Good luck with it, and enjoy that great car. It's got almost the same hp, and more TQ than the 3.0L V-6 from the last generation of Camrys.
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2009 Camry Hybrid, Black.
2007 Avalon XLS, Cassis Pearl (that Burgundy color).
2004 Prius Package 9, Black.
Oh, I forgot to add this in my original post, yesterday. The FrozenRotors product is unique. The FR people take their product (rotors, mostly) and freeze them at nearly absolute zero (around -300F) for about a week. This produces rotors with a much more robust metallic/crystalline structure that is much more resistant to surface wear, high temps, and far less likely to warp when pushed hard.
If you can afford them, and need new brakes, buy them. While of course they're not totally indestructible, they WILL last a lot longer than "garden variety" rotors.
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2009 Camry Hybrid, Black.
2007 Avalon XLS, Cassis Pearl (that Burgundy color).
2004 Prius Package 9, Black.
Oh, I forgot to add this in my original post, yesterday. The FrozenRotors product is unique. The FR people take their product (rotors, mostly) and freeze them at nearly absolute zero (around -300F) for about a week. This produces rotors with a much more robust metallic/crystalline structure that is much more resistant to surface wear, high temps, and far less likely to warp when pushed hard.
If you can afford them, and need new brakes, buy them. While of course they're not totally indestructible, they WILL last a lot longer than "garden variety" rotors.
very interesting. at 64 below zero Celsius, steel is so brittle that you can break steel pipe with bare hands. If they just deep freeze them, without annealing, I'd not even touch them.
actually, it's this:
Well, we start with the highest quality automotive, truck, or SUV brake rotor that we can source and then we run it through a 60-hour cryogenic process
so it's only 2.5 days. Back from my tool and die years, we spent a lot of time heat treating alloys and steels, for tools, stamps, dies. There was basically 2 ways of doing this - either bring metal to very high temperature, and then cool it down either in water or oil. Or, take same metal at room temperature, and dip it into a cryogenic solution. But both methods resulted in basically same structural changes in metal, and every time it had to be annealed, or it would break from slightest strike.
Thanks so much for the replies....especially that fully descriptive one that enlightened me on how the cars system actually works! The car is a 2007 and has just under 75k miles on it. The rears are starting to squeak, so I figured I would do them and the fronts at the same time. The parking brake pedal has also lost some of its "pedal", which I know can be solved by replacing the rear brakes with more meat.
Thanks to all!!
DO NOT bleed the brakes yourself. To change the pads you do not need to bleed or change the fluid. I have always done pad/fluid changes myself.
On the TCH I found out that you do not want to open the bleeder screws. Something is special about them. When I opened the RR bleeder screw to replace the fluid at 50k miles, very high pressure fluid came out. Pumping the pedal which would normally move the fluid thru the system did not move any fluid. I used a check valve tube when bleeding so no air would get into the system. I wanted to replace the fluid at 3 yrs/50K miles so I took it to the local T dealer. It took 2 technicians, special equipment and $520 of my money to replace the fluid. On my 03 M3 and 09 Z06 I can replace the fluid in less than an hour for about $15.
well, here's SPECIAL part. you do not bleed ABS brakes the way you bleed regular ones. there's special tool that allows to do this, considering it has to be done with ABS hydraulic actuators in mind.
now, on the DIY side, I have done this twice, so far, on my Silverado, the "normal" way, and no problems observed. but yes, ABS brake systems are not generally bled like your regular brakes.
well, here's SPECIAL part. you do not bleed ABS brakes the way you bleed regular ones. there's special tool that allows to do this, considering it has to be done with ABS hydraulic actuators in mind.
now, on the DIY side, I have done this twice, so far, on my Silverado, the "normal" way, and no problems observed. but yes, ABS brake systems are not generally bled like your regular brakes.
I have had ABS on my 95 M3, 03 M3 and 09 Z06 and bled the brakes with no problem (still do the Z06 as I do HPDE events), but the TCH requires the special equipment that Toyota has and charge big $ for.
I guess I paid for the recycling of the valves, however I found that Step 1, the normal bleed process did not work on the TCH. I would be satisfied if that would work.
Specifically what I did is install my bleeder line which has a backflow check valve on it on the bleeder screw, had my helper apply pressure on the brake pedal, opened the bleeder valve and the bleeder line blew off with significant force off the bleeder valve, spraying fluid everywhere. I had my helper release pressure, I reinstalled the bleeder line and then pressure, open the line, nothing happened, helper pumped the brakes, no fluid movement, thus I couldn't replace the fluid . closed the bleeder, wheels on, go for a drive (brakes OK), and then off to Toyota for a $500 hosing.
Have you bled the brakes normally? If so, the next time I try, I'll have my helper wait to apply pressure until after I open the bleeder valve. Maybe some internal check valve prevented bleeding after the pressure blow.
Sorry to hijack this thread.
Last edited by rainbowchaser; 08-29-2011 at 09:21 AM.
I followed this thread and replaced my rear pad at 100K. They were very worn. The installation was so easy. Here is what I did:
Took off 2 x 14mm bolts holding the caliper.
Compressed the caliper back in with C-clamp.
Replaced the pad holding clips and pads.
Put the calipers back on.
I did the entire process including rotating my front wheels in 1.5 hrs. I am not an engineer just an IT guy but I can read forums and learn from what people have done on YouTube. I am happy that the Camry is very easy to work on.
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